McDonald’s Massacre
A Closer Look: McDonald’s Massacre
In July 1984 a shooting spree by a man at a San Diego McDonald’s restaurant left 21 people dead
and injured 19. Read the following article about the subsequent litigation by the survivors of the
massacre:
http://articles.latimes.com/1986-02-09/local/me-6022_1_james-oliver-huberty.
Now read the following excerpt from the judge’s opinion in Lopez v. McDonald’s (193 Cal. App. 3d
495, 238 Cal. Rptr. 436):
The special relationship between a business establishment and its customers as a matter
of law places an affirmative duty on the proprietor to take reasonable precautions to protect patrons from reasonable anticipative criminal conduct of unknown third parties. . . .
Nevertheless, the primary issue here is not whether a fast-food proprietor has a duty
to protect plaintiffs from the potential criminal attacks perpetrated by unknown third
parties, but rather to determine whether the boundaries of McDonald’s general “duty”
encompasses the burden to protect against once-in-a-lifetime massacres. We do this
by evaluating this specific event’s reasonable foreseeability, or likelihood of occurrence
under the circumstances, with applicable policy considerations in resolving whether liability should be restricted.
You can read the entire opinion here: http://law.justia.com/cases/california/calapp3d/193/495.html.
Questions to Consider
1. Do you agree with the judge’s ruling that such an occasion was unforeseeable, meaning there
was no direct causation, and thus this particular McDonald’s had no liability?
2. What evidence did the plaintiffs present to prove that McDonald’s was guilty of negligence?
3. What measures could businesses like McDonald’s take to prevent incidents such as this in the
future?
